Review: Girl, Stolen by April Henry

byAllison (AllureofBooks)onSeptember 17, 2010

Summary:

Sixteen year-old Cheyenne Wilder is sleeping in the back of a car while her mom fills her prescription at the pharmacy. Before Cheyenne realizes what’s happening, their car is being stolen–with her inside! Griffin hadn’t meant to kidnap Cheyenne, all he needed to do was steal a car for the others. But once Griffin’s dad finds out that Cheyenne’s father is the president of a powerful corporation, everything changes—now there’s a reason to keep her. What Griffin doesn’t know is that Cheyenne is not only sick with pneumonia, she is blind. How will Cheyenne survive this nightmare, and if she does, at what price? (Source:Goodreads)

My Review:

Hmm. I wasn’t sure what I’d be getting when I picked this up to read. A blind girl kidnapped? How would that plot unfold? How would the characters interact? Could the author pull such difficult circumstances off?

Well, in some ways April Henry excelled, but in others? Not so much.

The plot was engaging and constantly moved forward. I think the circumstances were very realistic and believable, and the back-and-forth between Griffin and Cheyenne was quite intriguing.

However, as far as the characters go overall, this is where Henry fails to deliver. A blind girl being kidnapped? This should scare me – my heart should be breaking for this girl. Griffin was caught between his jerk father and his own feelings. These tortured characters should have jumped off the page and haunted me. However, even when Cheyenne was talking or thinking about her horrible past, the descriptions felt more like dispassionate character sketches then the real feelings and events in a teenage girl’s life. I never felt like the words or the story connected to the characters: they were just props for the plot.

So, even though the plot was well written and I was very interested to see how things turned out, I never truly felt the characters. I think this book might be geared toward and more appropriate for younger teen readers. So, if you are intrigued by this plot but would prefer something a little more mature and emotionally engaging, try Stolen by Lucy Christopher instead.